Cats

Did I mention that I'm doing some cat-sitting for some friends of mine? No, not the white cat who tried to get my soul, different cats.

My friends have three cats, with appropriate names:




Tubbo












Chubbo
















Twiggy



Don't ask me how one stayed so thin, maybe the other two eat all the food before the third can get to it. At least these cats don't try to get my soul, they know me well enough by now to know that I don't have one.






But wait, there's another mystery . . .



Locals have for years told tales of an unknown fourth creature in the house, ever elusive, its true identity unknown. This dramatic photograph, taken by an amateur photographer, is purported to be the only evidence on film of this mysterious creature. Many scientists believe it is a case of mistaken identity with Chubbo, or an elaborate hoax, but locals and noted cryptozoologists studying the case refute this, saying that Chubbo is way too fat to move so quickly, and the beast is too small to be someone in a costume. Skeptics remain unconvinced. Nevertheless, the search continues and it is hoped that one day the world will have convincing evidence of the creature locals call "Qatsquatch".

Skeptics in the Pub -- Friday, January 29

So having met another critical thinker in Doha, and he knows some other like-minded people, looks like it's time for...

The first get-together of critical thinkers in Doha!

Friday, January 29
Location: Library Bar, Ramada Hotel
Time: 7-ish

Nothing formal, just critical thinkers chatting over drinks. If anyone is interested feel free to come along!
(And if any Muslims are reading this and are interested in such events let me know, we will see about future ones being "Skeptics in the Cafe" so you can join us.)


I will also post this notice on the JREF forums on the odd chance someone in Doha peruses those boards. Stranger things have happened.

Scottish slang

Some friends of mine are on vacation for the next few weeks so I am popping by every day to check up on the house and make sure everything is okay. One of them is Scottish and on the coffee table they have a coasters with various Scottish words and their definitions. Being of British ancestry myself I decided to read through them all to see what ones I knew. Turns out I knew about half. See how you do:

blether
numpty
galoot
besom
steamin'
canny

Careful, you may think you know the definition of some of them but it turns out Scots may have a different meaning of the word, be sure to look them up afterwords.

Tattooing

No, not me. I don't have any tattoos.

Following up on my statements regarding how Muslims do not necessarily follow all aspects of Scripture, nor interpret things exactly the same way, here is an interesting article regarding tattooing in Qatar. Apparently tattooing is banned here as it is haram (prohibited under Islam) but many do it anyway.

I was not sure why tattooing is banned so quick search came up with this.

Tattooing is not mentioned in the Qur’an, but I guess later scholars decided it was not a good thing.

Some rubbish on the internet about Muslims can't be "Good Americans"

In the comments section of my previous blog post came a notification of an e-mail making the rounds regarding whether Muslims can be “Good Americans”. Let's take a look, shall we?


CAN A MUSLIM BE A GOOD CANADIAN OR AMERICAN?

In light of the murders at Ft. Hood by a Muslim Officer (who had sworn to defend the people, our Constitution and the United States) this article becomes more timely and real than ever.

What does this have to do with being a Canadian when the first paragraph makes it quite clear this is about the United States? My guess, and this frequently happens with e-mails that circulate around, is that the original just said “Good American" and it reached the inbox of some Canadian who decided to tack on Canada as well. It becomes quite apparent when you read on that this has nothing to do with Canada or being Canadian.

Can a good Muslim be a good American or Canadian?

I sent that question to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. The following is his reply:

Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of Arabia.

Right away we get to at least two problems.

1) That for someone to be a good American or Canadian they have to be theologically compatible with a specific viewpoint; and
2) That Allah is “the moon god of Arabia”

Anyone who spends just five minutes browsing through the Qur’an would quickly determine that Islam is an Abrahamic religion. Many of the stories and key people in the Bible are mentioned in the Qur’an (Adam, Abraham, Noah, David, Isaac, Jacob, Ishmael, Job, Lot, Solomon, Moses, Jesus, they're all in there). Allah is the same as the God of the Bible and the Torah. Surah 3:45-3:47 should spell it out plainly enough if you want a reference.

This of course creates a conrundrum for the writer of this article. If Islam is an Abrahamic religion, and Allah = God, then it would be tough to state that it is theologically inconsistent with being a Good American (and let's be frank in case you didn't figure it out, the article equates being a Good American with being Christian). Because if Islam was incompatible than by that logic neither would Judaism, and any non-Abrahamic religion (Buddhism, Hinduism, native religions etc).

So what's the article writer’s solution to get around this problem? Declare it’s actually a moon god of Arabia, thus denying the religion its clear Abrahamic connection altogether.

At this point I strongly suspect that the original writer of this article is an Evangelical Christian living in America, and I highly doubt they have ever been to Saudi Arabia, but I'll discuss that later. Why do I suspect this? Because the “moon god” issue is sometimes touted around Christian websites as part of anti-Islamic rhetoric.

Sorry Christianity but you are not the ultimate arbiter as to who is and who isn't worshipping God. Fundamentalist Christians can claim the moon god connection until they are blue in the face, the actual followers of the religion, i.e. Muslims, all fully believe that they are worshipping the same God of the Bible and Torah, that the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, and so on.

The recent controversy in Malaysia is an odd one as no other Islamic country has an issue with non-Muslims using the word Allah to refer to God. My understanding is that the Malaysian government is concerned that if Christians use Allah instead of God it could help convert Muslims to Christianity. Not sure how that would work, and a judge threw it out.

Religiously - no. Because no other religion is accepted by his Allah except Islam.

this shows a complete ignorance of:
1) Islam;
2) countries where Islam is the majority religion; and
3) Medieval history of Europe and the Islamic world

The Qur’an does make distinctions between "People of the Book", the Abrahamic religions (Muslims, Jews, and Christians) and other religions. Islam definitely accepts Christianity and Judaism because, while perhaps “misguided” because they do not believe the Word of God as revealed to the Prophet Muhammed, they all do worship the same God. Christian and Jewish communities have lived amongst the Islamic world for 1400 years, and a Jewish or Christian woman can marry a Muslim man without needing to convert.

An Islamic scholar would probably have to chip in here but my layman understanding is that, in general, Islam takes the view that Jews and Christians were given the Word of God through various Prophets (Jesus, for example, is considered a Prophet of God). Because the scriptures were not written down immediately over time the sayings of those Prophets became corrupted by priests and other people in power, so that by the time they were written the scriptures were no longer the accurate revelations of God. (With the number of Gnostic texts out there I could see how this view could be supported.) Thus Islam concludes that Christians and Jews have been unfortunately misled by inaccurate scriptures, which was part of the reason why God revealed His Word to the Prophet Muhammed, to get worship "back on track" so to speak. Jews and Christians do not have to convert to Islam for they are still worshippers of God and ultimately God will judge them. The Qur’an has a lot in it about how someone's intentions and sincerity are important, Allah will forgive transgressions if people were honestly intending to do the right thing, so I guess Allah is perfectly willing to let Jews and Christians into heaven provided they lived a decent life had kept their religion because they truly believed Judaism/Christianity was a proper way to worship God.

The above interpretation is debatable I'm sure and like all religions there would be diverse opinion on the issue across the Islamic world. Some Surahs in the Qur'an probably support the view when some dispute it.

Anyway, to state that no other religion is accepted is false.

Now I am not implying that for the entire 1400 years Christians, Jews and Muslims all lived a happy peaceful coexistence. Depending on the region and at what point in history sometimes things were good and sometimes things were not. But as anyone who has studied Jewish history can tell you the same is true about Europe as well.

Other religions have also resided in the Islamic world and still remain to this day. There are many Zoroastrians in Persia, Druuze in the Levant Arab area, and let's not forget that large parts of India were once under the rule of the Muslim Mughul emperors, ruling over large numbers of Hindus, Buddhists & Sikhs.

Scripturally - no. Because his allegiance is to the five pillars of Islam and the Quran (Koran).

Okay so far this is three religious topics regarding how to be a "Good American" and it is getting ridiculous. Scriptural compatibility? What the heck does that even mean? Sounds even more ridiculous if you relate it to Canada. Isn't America all about separation of church and state? How can one be scripturally compatible with Canada?

The implication of this statement is clear -- a good American has to somehow be scripturally compatible. Hmmmm, wonder what scripture this might be referring to? I'll take a wild guess here that they are referring to the Bible. So I guess Buddhists can’t be good Americans either because of their allegiance to Buddha? What about Mormons, they have slightly different scripture? Sikhs? Wiccans? Atheists?

I'm not American and I have not done a lot of work on American history but my understanding is that many of the founding fathers were actually Deists (Thomas Jefferson & Benjamin Franklin for example), which is why there is a strong separation of church and state built into the founding documents of America. My understanding from attending JREF conventions is that many fundamentalist Christians are now trying to undermine that history in an attempt to erode the church/state separation, this statement about "Scriptural compatibility" seems to fall into this line of thinking. A topic far too big for this blog but I encourage anyone reading this, especially Americans, to investigate the history of church/state separation for themselves.

As for the Five Pillars people need to educate themselves a little bit on what they are before declaring that allegiance to them is somehow not becoming with being a good American, given the strong religious undertones of this article. (hint: one pillar is to worship no one other than God; another is to give to the poor)

Geographically - no. Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.

This struck me as being analogous to saying Catholics can’t be good Americans because the Pope sits in the Vatican, but I digress.

Mecca is a city and as far as I know Muslims do not swear allegiance to it. One just needs to educate themselves a little as to why Muslims face Mecca when praying. This blog post is getting long, so instead I will direct you to this website which gives an explanation. Nothing to do with allegiance to Mecca.

This has nothing to do with a geographical “allegiance”, Muslims face Mecca to demonstrate their allegiance to God, not to a geographic place. Christians do not make pilgrimages to Bethlehem to demonstrate their allegiance to the town of Bethlehem.

Socially - no. Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.

This is referring to Surah 5:51, which many have translated as stating Muslims can't take Jews and Christians as friends. Firstly not all agree with that translation (link has some detailed analysis), secondly this is a rehash of the fallacy that Muslims all obey every single thing in Scripture to the letter, exactly the same way, something we would never apply to Christianity. Would it surprise you to know I am friends with a number of Muslims? They don't seem to mind. Maybe Muslims are a lot like Christians and the vast majority of them do not follow every single thing in Scripture to the letter? You think?

Politically - no. Because he must submit to the mullah (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and Destruction of America, the great Satan.

Once again we have the fallacy that all Muslims practise their religion exactly the same way and have the exact same beliefs and prejudices, something I went on about in my blog post about the Swiss minaret controversy as well. And apparently the author of this article mistakenly believes that every single mullah is a rabid America-destroyer (which is odd since there are millions of Muslim Americans).

Yes there are mullahs who are openly hostile to America and Israel, they are the ones who get lots of press. I would not even say that such people were rare, they can certainly be found in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, and Indonesia. But that does not represent the view of all of Islam, nor all mullahs. The problem is that "Mullah gives talk that does not mention America or Israel" doesn't make it into newspapers so peoples' perceptions can get skewed.

Domestically - no. Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him.

Okay let's think for a second -- how would it even be possible for every man to marry four women?

A Muslim man is allowed to marry up to four women, it is not a requirement to marry four women (Surah 4:3), and the vast majority just marry one. In Islam you have to treat each wife equally so it is just not financially viable for most men to maintain multiple wives. Even then the Sultan of Brunei, one of the richest men in the world, has two wives, and the Sultan of Oman married once, divorced, and has never remarried.

I believe the beating women reference comes from surah 4:34. It does say that, but as the last of three options. One translation states:
The men are made responsible for the women, and GOD has endowed them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners. The righteous women will cheerfully accept this arrangement, since it is GOD's commandment, and honor their husbands during their absence. If you experience rebellion from the women, you shall first talk to them, then (you may use negative incentives like) deserting them in bed, then you may (as a last alternative) beat them. If they obey you, you are not permitted to transgress against them. GOD is Most High, Supreme

Not really as harsh as it is made out to be, but yes it is there. I do question how this is somehow equated with not being a "Good American" since domestic violence is still a significant issue in the West, and slapping a woman was common in movies and TV until the 70s. Domestic violence did not become an issue of American Patriotism, women's rights groups and victims fought hard to bring the issue into the spotlight in the 70s and 80s.

Intellectually - no. Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.

But what about the Canadian Constitution? (*chuckle*) It's lines like this that make me wonder why someone would tack "Good Canadian" onto the article, did they even read it all the way through? I am quite sure the original author was just writing about Americans.

Ironically this section is about being "intellectual" yet what in the American Constitution is based on Biblical principles? No, seriously, help me out here.

Philosophically - no. Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran do not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.

I already noted above that Islam does accept other religions and a quick Google will find plenty of Christian churches in Muslim countries. Qatar opened its first cathedral a few years ago. I will grant that religious freedom is definitely more restricted in places like Saudi Arabia and Taleban-controlled Afghanistan. Freedom of expression varies from country to country, I haven't heard much problems with Malaysia or Turkey, things are a bit tighter in Egypt, Gulf countries tighter still.

Looking at this list of 205 countries rated by media freedom the highest ranked majority Muslim nation is Mali at #57 (for comparison Greece is #56, Israel #59 and South Africa #63). Next is Turkey at #108 (Mexico is #107), Kuwait at 115, Lebanon at 116. All higher than Thailand (120), Singapore (145), Russia (170) and a number of former Soviet republics as well as some predominately Christian nations in Africa and South America. So the Islamic world is not great at media freedom but many other non-Muslim nations aren't any better.

As for the democracy jab look at Turkey, Malaysia, Lebanon, some states in India, and surprisingly, Palestine, where the West Bank voted in one party while Gaza elected another. Yes, some Islamic countries are monarchies, some are ruled by dictators, or they have elections but clearly one party has a stranglehold on power, but not all of the Islamic countries do, and some may have democracy at local or provincial levels. Democracy and Islam can coexist. To say that every Muslim government is either dictatoral or autocratic is wrong.

And was Christianity a big supporter of democracy? Most of the history of Christian Europe were monarchies with the Church also having a solid grip on power. Some attempts at democracy had to fight against the Church to become established (the French Revolution for example).

Spiritually - no. Because when we declare "one nation under God," the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent names.

Let me see if I have this right -- you can't be a good American (or Canadian) unless your scripture refers to your God as "heavenly father"? Say what??

And the Christian God is loving and kind!? Looks like the author has conveniently forgotten most of the Old Testament, which does not portray God as particularly loving and kind (was it really necessary to wipe out almost all life in the Flood because people were sinful? How many children and babies were killed? And why kill all the bunny rabbits except two? I also recall the occasional city and tribe being wiped out by God. And did Lot's wife really deserve that? Did Egypt deserve plague after plague just because the Pharoh was a jerk?).

There are lists of the 99 names and yes, Allah is not called "love". So what? What does God being called Love (where in the Bible is that anyway?) have to do with being a Good American? And a quick flick through the index in my Qur'an shows frequent mention of Allah being things such as:

forgiving and merciful (for example 1:1, the very first line! but in numerous other places such as 2:192, 2:235, 3:89, 3:129, 4:23, 4:106, 4:110, 5:98 etc),
a healer (3:38),
that He loves the doers of good (2:195, 3:134, 3:148, 5:13, 5:93)
that He is with the doers of good (29:69)
He loves those who purify themselves (2:222, 9:108)
He loves those who act justly (5:42, 49:9, 60:8)
if you love Him, He will love you (3:31, 5:54)
he loves those who rely upon Him (3:159)

Don't get me wrong there are parts where He is not so happy -- frequent mention that disbelievers will earn His wrath in the afterlife, but then the Old Testament God wasn't a barrel of joy & love either.

Therefore after much study and deliberation....perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country.
They obviously cannot be both "good" Muslims and good Americans or Canadians.

After much STUDY! What studying?! Five minutes with a Qur'an dismisses many of the arguments, two minutes Googling dismisses most of the others. Anyone with half a brain about Canada could see the "Good Canadian" was just a tack-on, and I suspect some research into the history of the separation of church and state in America would undermine the not-so-hidden Christian undertone to being a "Good American". Oh, and the writer supposedly has lived in Saudi Arabia for 20 years, yet clearly does not know anything about the Qur'an? Uh-huh, right.

Call it what you wish....it's still the truth.

Truth? How about what this really is -- a pack of deliberate lies, fallacies, & deception mixed with denial and an inability to research the topic, with a pinch of hypocrisy. Had I mentioned the hypocrisy yet? This article loves to go on about how Islam cannot tolerate other religions, yet this article is chock-full of intolerance for other religions. It demands suspicion of an entire religious group, and the "Good American" criteria would exclude all other religions as well -- except Christianity of course.

If you find yourself intellectually in agreement with the above statements, perhaps you will share this with your friends. The more who understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future. The religious war is bigger than we know or understand!

If you find yourself "intellectually" buying into this drivel you checked your brain at the door long ago. I strongly advise you to take a course in critical thinking, or to start training yourself to do a bit of research on e-mail chains like this before getting all outraged and passing it on your friends.

Honestly, there are many problems in the Islamic world, but promoting nonsense like this is not going to help. Imagine if Gordon Brown went to Egypt to negotiate a treaty and people were protesting his visit, or the Egyptian Government was "suspicious" of him, because the Bible has a section in it about selling your daughters into slavery! Do you honestly think Mr Brown would take you seriously in any way? Do you think any real problems would be solved if people demanded that no other negotiations take place until this "daughter-slavery" problem was dealt with in the UK?

This is part of the problem the West has right now. So many Westerners do not understand Islam or the Islamic world and because of it they easily fall for a bunch of mistruths that turns attention away from the real issues and instead to red herrings like wondering if they can be a "Good Canadian".

This blog post gets both an "Islam" and "Critical Thinking" designation.

Population

Okay, let's chill out a bit about my health woes and get onto other topics.

I had not mentioned this interesting article in the local newspaper regarding Qatar's population, or more importantly:

1) the change in the population over the course of one month; and
2) the gender ratio

It provides a great example of how transient and fluid the population is here. A population of 1.6 million had a net increase of about 50,000 in one month! These are changes of population ranging from approximately 3% over the course of one month. For comparison that would be the equivalent of Canada gaining/losing 1 million people in a month. In fact the change is so significant I'm skeptical that the numbers are accurate and unfortunately the article does not say how the numbers were determined by the Government.

I also wish there was a breakdown in terms of business sector. Qatar has only one major city, Doha, which contains around 60 to 70% of the country's population, but I did not notice a significant change to traffic in the last couple of months that could not be explained by school closures for the holidays. A population increase/decrease of 3%+ should have created a significant change in traffic density (especially because recent news reports state that the number of cars on the road is increasing by 10,000 a month, though again I think that figure is just new cars and does not take into account all of the older cars taken off the road or sold to people who take them out of the country, so the actual growth figure is smaller). Because the traffic has not increased significantly I suspect that most of the increase is either labourers from South Asia or family members of workers already here.

As for the gender ratio the numbers speak for themselves and I have touched on this a few times in the past on my blog. Most jobs here are held by men -- primarily a combination of most employment being blue-collar jobs like construction, migrants from countries where men are expected to be the breadwinner of the family, and where many workers come from countries that do not encourage single ladies to leave their country to work on their own (many Asian and African countries are like this, the Philippines being a notable exception). Combine that with laws that require you to earn a minimum amount to be allowed to bring your family here and you have a population heavily skewed to men.

I'm not criticising the law requiring that you earn a minimum amount to bring your family over (I think the minimum was recently raised to QR 7000/month (~US$1900)). Qatar is an expensive country, more expensive than many Western nations, and if you do not earn a certain income there is no way you would be able to maintain a family here -- better that they stay back in their home country where things are much cheaper and have money sent to them. I'm not even sure how one would raise a family here on QR 7000 a month, it would be tough to find a shabby apartment for less than 5000. I've heard rumours of people renting three-bedroom apartments and an entire family lives in each bedroom! I do not know how common that is though, could be one of those rare things that the rumour mill has run with, but classified ads and notice boards at supermarkets usually advertise rooms for rent in apartments or villas.

Anyway, this demonstrates just how different Qatar is to a typical Western nation, especially the gender ratio.

(Still not sure about the accuracy of the statistics though, I wonder what the Government was using to determine them)

Nothing starts the New Year off right like...

An emergency root canal! *sigh*

Remember how I had to have all of my wisdom teeth out? Well the reason I had to have them removed (aside from the fact they were heavily impacted) was because a big cavity had formed where a wisdom tooth was impacting another tooth, and the dentist could not get at the cavity unless the wisdom tooth was removed. So after the wisdom teeth were removed and my mouth had a chance to heal the dentist filled the cavity. It was so deep the dentist said she could see the pulp. So she warned me there was a chance it would get inflamed in which case I would be in real pain, so she gave me her mobile number in case that happened.

After nine days suddenly my jaw started feeling more sore than usual. By Friday I was having the occasional throbbing pain that would last about 3 or 4 minutes, and remember I'm on prescription painkillers for my back. Now I've had a toothache before that required a root canal and I remember the pain well so I knew something was up. I called my dentist and she said to come in Saturday at 5 p.m. as she worked evening shift on Saturday (everything in Qatar is closed on Fridays). I figured okay I can hold out until then because I have the strong painkillers and the pain attacks were annoying but bearable.

By Saturday I was doing little but laying on the couch watching the clock waiting for the time when I could head to the dentist. The throbbing pain was now every 40 minutes or so and would last for around 10 minutes. It was getting agonising even with the painkillers and when an attack came there was little I could do except lay on the couch and close my eyes until the pain passed. I do not even want to know what it would have been like without the prescription painkillers.

Got to the dentist and had a root canal done. Aaaaaaaah, I felt so much better. It is amazing how just a few little nerves in a tooth can cause such trouble. At some points it felt like the right side of my face was being punched repeatedly.

Go back to the dentist again this week to get the root canal finished. After that that should be it for dental problems this year (I hope).

Book Fair

Check out this recent article in the newspaper about an upcoming book fair. Figured I would mention it since I had recently posted about why it is difficult to find a detailed history of Qatar.

Back Update

Okay so the MRI results came back, looks like I have a slight degeneration in one of the discs in my lower back. It has a lot less fluid than the other discs, which affects the elasticity, which can cause soreness and pinching. Definitely could see it in the MRI -- all of my discs showed up as black with white in the middle except for the troubled disc which was entirely black. So I'm booked for physiotherapy (starting this week), need to lose weight, and try to avoid sitting for long periods of time, which is more difficult than it sounds since I work in an office. If after a few months there is still no improvements I think I can have fluid injected into the disc, but that sounds a little scary. The degeneration is apparently something that can come with age and also with people who sit for long periods of time. I'm getting old! *sigh*

On the plus side booking physiotherapy was a breeze, go down one floor to the physiotherapy department at the clinic, hand them the referral form, and my first appointment is in a few days (provided the insurance company approves it of course). When it comes to wait times for medical service Qatar beats Canada hands-down.

Christmas Eve Medical

While everyone else is gearing up for Christmas (well, the Westerners and Christians anyway) I decided to do something different -- go to the doctor about my back. The blood work and x-rays were ready so I was to see him.

So another meeting with a doctor, another consultation, and another prescription for medications, my third in eight days. I had to spend a minute to ask the doctor which ones of the old prescriptions do I keep taking and which ones do I stop. Oh, and I have to lose weight. Next appointment is on Sunday.

By the time I got home: my back ached, my tooth ached from that cavity I had filled a few days ago, my Repetitive Strain Injury was acting up a little because I was driving around, traffic was lousy, I'm now on a diet, and because of the cavity I can't eat anything hot or cold for a week, and it was still hot outside. I was miserable.

Then, like those corny old Christmas specials on TV, I received a gift. And thanks to this gift everything started looking better again, my misery vanished, and I was back to my happier self...




... prescription painkillers!



Wow, those things work like a charm! It's amazing how much better you feel about things when you're not in pain and discomfort.


Back to health care. When I first saw the back doctor (a neurosurgeon) he wanted me to undergo some blood tests, x-rays, and an MRI. Did the blood tests and the x-ray immediately thereafter, and made an appointment for the MRI, which would be in three weeks. When I spoke to the doctor today he asked about the MRI and I told them I had made a booking for January 11. He immediately said, "no, no that's too long, go back and tell them to get an earlier appointment, if you pressure them they will do it."

I thought that was strange, I thought three weeks for an MRI was pretty good (in Canada it would be). So I went back to the MRI area and told the clerk at the appointment desk that I had an appointment through January 11 but the doctor would like me to have it earlier. So he did a bit of typing on his computer, then said:

"Okay, comeback at 4:30 this afternoon"

So I had an MRI appointment for the same day! In fact, I just got back from it. (Are you reading this Health Canada!?) That's why my next appointment with the doctor is Sunday, to discuss my MRI results.


Now I do not want anyone to worry that I will be spending Christmas sitting in some corner alone in the dark. I'm visiting friends tomorrow morning, and going to another friend's place for Christmas dinner. I have also booked my plane tickets for Canada so in about five weeks time I will be with my family having our usual late-Christmas. And thanks to prescription painkillers I should enjoy it all, even though I will not be eating as much as I would have liked.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Warranty Has Expired

These past few days has seen me go to one doctor for a problem with my back (doctor suspects it is a joint inflammation between the spine and the hip, test results come back Thursday), and to the dentist to get a deep cavity filled (this was why I needed to get my wisdom teeth out the cavity was between a tooth and an impacted wisdom tooth).

I swear my mother must have a certificate that was given to her when I was born stating that I have a 38-year warranty because, man, am I falling apart! I've been under general anaesthetic three times in the last year and have had two other medical problems besides. Almost everything has been resolved so if this back inflammation can get sorted out then I have to worry about is my repetitive strain injury.

I hope 2010 is way better medical-wise.

National Day

Qatar's National Day was the 18th. They used to celebrate Independence Day (in this case independence from British oversight in 1971) on September 3 but a couple of years ago it was decided to instead celebrate when the Al-Thani family became the rulers of Qatar, so celebrating on September 3 was shelved in favour of December 18. From a weather point of view an excellent decision, the temperature is still in the mid-40s in early September which makes outdoor celebrations difficult.

Offhand I do not have the history of the Royal family handy but I believe that the current ruler is the fifth or sixth of the Al-Thani rulers, so the Al-Thanis have ruled the country for about a century.

Getting a detailed history of the area is quite challenging, as far as I can tell there are no history books in English giving more than a brief overview of Qatar's history. From discussions with my Qatari colleagues there are not many in Arabic as well. The reason seem to involve internal politics.

If you look at the history of Qatar, as was the history of other countries in the region, it was dominated by the interactions between the various families (though in English it would be considered more like clans instead of families since these families can have thousands of members). Families would control certain areas, possibly raid others, form alliances, engage in wars, flee to other areas if overrun etc. The history of these interactions and conflicts were rarely written down but instead kept in oral tradition, handed down from generation to generation. I've had the occasional snippet of this history, that the town of Al-Khor used to be under the control of a coalition of seven small families, or that one clan had been chased out of Qatar and had moved to what is now Bahrain, but for the most part I have no idea about what happened here. I'm sure a detailed history would be interesting. So why isn't there one?

Because all of the families are still around.

Histories are full of victors and losers, heroes and villains, joy and sorrow. So if a detailed history of Qatar were to be written who would be the bad guys? You can bet that none of the families are going to accept a history book that portrays them in a bad light, and I'm willing to bet that the oral histories very differently from family to family. What one family may consider a righteous victory another might consider an unjustified massacre. One family "reclaiming their land" would be considered "taking our land" by another family. And who would be right? That is what makes writing down the detailed history of the region so difficult. And I'm guessing that is why you do not see any books on it, it would be a sure way to just ruffle a lot of feathers.

This creates some confusion even amongst Qataris learning their history. One mentioned to me that he took a course in school and later took a history course while in Bahrain and what was taught there was very different from what was taught in Qatar, which also differed from what older members of the family would tell him about certain events. It would be difficult to tell who was right in the end.


Anyway, happy National Day Qatar. I hope that a comprehensive history book can come out one day.

Myths about Muslims, part 2

okay, let's continue with the "misconceptions about Muslims"

4) myth: all Muslims memorise the Qur'an
the Qur'an says [. . . .] so all Muslims follow it to the letter

I have lumped these two together because they both stem from a misconception regarding how much Muslims adhere to the Scripture. We in the West are fully aware that Christians do not follow every single item in the Bible to a "T", and that there is wide variance as to what aspects of the Bible individuals follow or how they interpret it. Yet for some reason we are not willing to apply that same standard to Muslims, if the Qur'an has a passage about something people conclude that all Muslims follow it exactly the same.

For example I have been to a few international seminars in Europe in which some of the attendees are Muslims. Inevitably when we go out to dinner one or two of them has wine or beer with their meal. Someone usually whispers to me "I thought Muslims couldn't drink alcohol", and my response is always "And Christians are supposed to be virgins until they are married.". They usually get the hint. When it comes to how adamantly people follow the scriptures with Islam, like Christianity, the actual application may vary from person to person, and even from culture to culture (see item 1 from my previous blog post).

This ties in with the myth that all Muslims memorise the Qur'an, which I think mostly derives from all of those news reports showing young boys in madrasas rocking back and forth while reciting the Qur'an. Now don't get me wrong, many Muslims try to memorise the Qur'an, or at least parts of it, but "many" is not "all" and a lot don't memorise it (I daresay most do not memorise it but I do not have exact figures). I do not know anyone who has memorised it. I have even asked a couple of people and the response is usually something like "oh that is something fundamentalists or imams do".

Now during Ramadan one of the requirements is for a Muslim to either read the entire Qur'an or listen to someone else recite it (many mosques hold special readings during Ramadan at a set time for this purpose so if you show up every evening you will ultimately listen to the entire Scripture being read). Again not everyone does this, but how necessary would it be if everyone had memorised it already? Don't forget that historically a lot of people were illiterate, which would have made memorisation even more difficult.

And I have found that some Muslims are unaware of some of the passages in Scripture, just like most Christians. For example when I was in Turkey I was at a bar chatting with another traveller about the differences between Turkey and Qatar. He had joked that because of the wealth in Qatar maybe he should find a Qatari woman to marry and I mentioned that in Islam a Muslim woman could only marry a Muslim man, although the reverse was not true as a Muslim man could marry a Christian or Jewish woman. He wondered if the same would apply in Turkey so we called over the bartender (a Turk) and asked if a Turkish Muslim woman could marry a Christian or Jewish man. He shrugged and said "why not?". I guess he didn't know that the Qur'an says she can't (sura 2:221). My Turkish friend was also not aware it was in the Qur'an.

One could argue that maybe Turks don't memorise Scripture because they are "liberal" compared to other Muslim societies but I have found the same in Qatar.

Because I'm interested in different cultures I sometimes have discussions with my Qatari friends about Islam, or why they do the things they do -- whether it is cultural or Scriptural, or chat about specific hadiths, and there is the rare time that I remember something I read in the Scripture or the hadiths that they had forgotten (not drinking from silver cups is one). It is rare, believe me, but it has happened. When we chat further about it the conclusion is usually that the requirements are already ingrained into the culture so it is followed without people sometimes realising its source. My Qatari friends do not wear gold because they knew that it was considered to be for women only and it was unacceptable for Qatari men to wear it. At least one didn't realise it is actually from a hadith, and a Pakistani colleague of mine did not realise it either. I have also met one Muslim here who needed to look up the dietary restrictions because he was unsure about a specific food but couldn't remember all of the restrictions in the Qur'an. So no, all Muslims do not memorise Scripture.

5) myth: all Muslims hate [insert foreigners/Westerners/Jews/whatever]

Another misconception created by the squeaky wheel getting the news coverage. Yes, Islamic terrorists have issues against either the US, Israel, or sometimes just generally the West. Yes, many people attend rallies where flags are burned. Yes, someone threw shoes at Bush. But there are over one billion Muslims in this world and unfortunately "a bunch of Muslims met in Kuala Lumpur and had peaceful discussions about Government farm subsidies" will never appear on CNN.

In the West there are always discussions about immigrants and whether they fit in and whether they are eroding local "culture". It seems to be a topic that never goes away.

Well in Qatar local citizens make up maybe 20% of the total population, probably less. 20%!! And it is not like it has always been this way, Qatar's population has grown so quickly from migration that as little as 8-10 years ago local citizens were in the majority. If such a change were to happen in a Western country there would be citizens rioting in the streets! But in the almost 4 years that I have been here I have never had anyone tell me to "go home", or go back where I came from, or said some anti-Western insult. I have seen a couple of times such sentiment expressed in opinion columns in the newspapers but most locals laugh at the thought of getting rid of the foreigners. Young Qataris have more ambitious plans than to become waiters, store clerks and taxi drivers, and the country's wealth allows them to set their expectations high. The country realises that it needs foreigners to fill most of the jobs, especially the lower paying ones, so the citizens were willing to become a minority in their own country. And no, most of these foreigners are not Muslims, there are thousands of Hindus from India, Christians from the Philippines, and Westerners of whatever religious belief. Many Gulf countries are like this. This would seem at odds with Western perceptions that Muslims hate foreigners or Westerners. The region does have issues with Israel but whether they have issues with Jews per se depends on the individual -- many Muslims realise that Israel is not all of Judaism, and all of Judaism is not Israel. Unfortunately some do think this way, which is no different in prejudice to people who think all Muslims are all the same.

and finally:

6) myth: all Muslims are Arabs, all Arabs are Muslims, all Muslims speak Arabic

Many in the West use "Arab" interchangeably with "Muslim" but the two are not synonymous. Indonesians certainly are not Arabs, Chinese Uighars would never consider themselves Arab, and neither would Turks. In fact most Muslims in the world are not Arabs, the exact percentage would depend on which countries you consider "Arab", but Arabs would form the minority in any event.

As for all Arabs being Muslims one has to remember that countries like Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt have always had significant Christian populations. In Jordan something like 15% of the population of Christian and I believe the number is even higher in Lebanon. When I vacationed in Egypt our guide was a Coptic Christian named Michael. So yes, the majority of Arabs are Muslims but it is incorrect to assume that all Arabs are.

As for Arabic it is widespread in certain parts of the Islamic world but is not spoken in others. Starting from Morocco and going east across North Africa all of those countries speak Arabic, as do the countries in the Arabian Peninsula, but once you reach Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq use of Arabic declines. North of them is Turkey, and despite the population being Muslim for over a thousand years they speak Turkish, not Arabic. East of those countries is Iran, which has always kept its Persian languages such as Farsi, Pakistanis predominantly speak Urdu, Afghanis have a wide range of languages such as Pushtan, and of course Malaysians and Indonesians have their own languages. Individuals will study Arabic as part of reading the Qur'an in its original language, but the vast majority are not fluent in it.

I could go on about Arabic for a while, even within the various countries that speak Arabic the dialects can be so different that it can be a challenge for one Arabic speaker to understand an Arabic speaker from another country. And the Arabic used in the Qur'an is different from the modern Arabic used today. I've had posts about this in the past so search my blog if you want more details.


Okay, rant over. I think Switzerland made a big mistake with their referendum, and I believe that much of their fear or annoyance with Islam is based on a lack of understanding.

Turkey, and Swiss minarets

A couple of weeks ago was the craziest week of work I have had in years, I had to put in so much overtime it prevented me from updating my blog and informing everyone that for the upcoming Eid holiday I went to Turkey for a few days. My friend Serdar was there with his son and it was really great to meet up with them and do a few things off the beaten track in Istanbul.

I was staying in a nice boutique hotel in Sultanahmet which had an amazing rooftop restaurant/bar with a view of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. And ironically, while looking these amazing buildings, it was there that I heard about the decision by the people of Switzerland to ban further building of minarets.

Not tall buildings, not structures that the belong to religious institutions, just minarets. Why? Well because they represent Islam of course.

I find the decision truly sad. It is discrimination against a specific religious group, no more, no less. I find it somewhat inexplicable but take comfort that I cannot fathom such a thing happening in Canada. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is all too clear and the Supreme Court of Canada would throw out such a law on its butt.

Reading further it appears that Switzerland has a law that as long as a certain number of citizens (100,000?) signs a petition on a particular issue that it has to go to a referendum. A politician in Canada suggested implementing something like that once, and a comedy troupe quickly showed why that is a ridiculous idea. I guess Switzerland didn't see the show.

On the JREF forum there was a thread about it, and it surprised me the number of bigoted or ignorant comments that came forth on the issue from some people, though in defence of the posters most of them agreed that the Swiss decision was little more than discrimination and were quick to jump on the bigoted arguments. A Jewish contributor also pointed out the eerie parallels between what was happening now and the types of laws that were happening 70 or 80 years ago against Jews. I'm not sure he even needs to go back that far, any anti-Semitic conspiracy theories around the internet use similar scare tactics to try to paint Judaism negatively.

I did learn something though reading many of the comments -- many people in the West know little to nothing about Islam or the Islamic world, and it leads to a lot of misconceptions and prejudice. I'm not saying that the Islamic world is some kind of utopian paradise, but how will the real issues be addressed when they have to spend their time facing criticism on issues that for the most part are just based on misconceptions?

So, let me take a moment to lay on the table a number of items that seems to be commonly understood in the West -- but is plain wrong.

1) myth: Islam is a one-dimensional monolithic entity

Islam, like Christianity, is split into various sects and factions. Sunni and Shi'a are the ones that people are familiar with but even within those there are many different types, much like "Protestant" encompasses a large number of different groups in Christianity. There are Sufis, Wahhabists, Ismailis (that's the group headed by the Aga Khan) and so on. All are different, and even within those groups people practise their religion differently -- some are fundamentalist, some are moderate, and many do not go to the mosque much and like wine with their dinner. No different than Christianity. Or Judaism for that matter.

Remember, over two dozen countries have a majority Muslim population -- ranging from Morocco all the way to Indonesia, and the societies between these countries can vary dramatically. Turkey is very different from Saudi Arabia, which is different from Oman, which is different from Egypt, which is nothing like Malaysia, which is different from Pakistan and so on. I get tired of seeing statements about Islam or Muslims that implies that they all act the same, dress the same way, are all in agreement about how to deal with the West, and so forth.

I have been fortunate to travel in many Muslim countries in the last few years and can tell you the assumption that people in one Muslim country are the same as in another makes about as much sense as assuming that Peruvians and Italians are the same because they are both from Catholic countries.

2) myth: Muslims want to impose sharia law on everybody

First of all, which sharia law would that be? See item one above. Even in countries that do have sharia law it is imposed differently from country to country. No alcohol allowed in Saudi Arabia but I can get a drink in Qatar, and I've seen many Omanis in dishdasha at the bars in Muscat. A Muslim man approaching women he doesn't know and asking them out could get him in trouble in Qatar -- and maybe get him a date in Lebanon. Does anyone think Egyptian law is the same as Taliban Afghanistan? (If you do you need to travel more.)

Oh wait, is Lebanon under sharia law? Iraq? Malaysia? Azerbaijan? I know Turkey isn't. Hey, I think there might be countries, where the majority of the population is Muslim, who themselves don't impose sharia law! So why the myth that Muslims want to impose sharia on everybody?

Because most of the Muslims you hear about on the TV news or read in the newspapers are the fundamentalists who like sharia law. A Muslim group asking for a sharia law to be applied in family court in the UK gets headlines, 90+ percent of Muslims accepting UK family law does not get headlines. Taliban madrasas get airtime, Turkish women going to university to become lawyers do not. What is shown to people tends to bias them.

3) myth: all Muslim women are dressed head-to-toe in black with veils (or in burkas)

Boy people in the West love those Saudi women dressed head-to-toe in black abayas with veils. Anytime someone wants to portray Muslims in a bad light out come the photos of women in abayas, though Afghani women in burkas have become fashionable in the last few years as well.

Has anyone seen TV news reports about the Swiss vote? Hopefully it showed that wonderful campaign poster of minarets sticking out of the Swiss flag looking like missiles while in the foreground there is a woman in an abaya and veil. What the heck!?

Abayas are commonly worn by women in the Arabian Peninsula but it is only mandatory in Saudi Arabia, in other countries in the Gulf such as Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait it is not mandatory, and many local women do not wear veils. Non-local women, even if they are Muslim, are not required to wear abayas in Qatar. None of the Qatari ladies who work in my office wear veils, and I know a Bahraini woman in Qatar who does not even cover her hair. No one cares.

The Swiss poster seems to imply that Muslim women wear abayas, but if most abaya-wearing women are from Saudi Arabia does that mean most of the Muslims in Switzerland are originally from Saudi Arabia? I doubt it. In fact, if that JREF thread is on the mark, most Swiss Muslims are from the former Yugoslavia and Turkey. Countries where women don't wear abayas. Heck, in Turkey a lot of them don't even wear headscarves.

Someone can feel free to correct me but here are the countries where you will commonly find local women with their faces covered:

Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Kuwait
Yemen
Afghanistan
maybe the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain. (Iraq?)

I think that's it. No, not Iran, they do have a dress code for women but it does not include veils.

Well that does not actually represent a lot of people. Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia each have populations as big or larger than the entire list combined, yet no one seems to pull out pictures of Indonesian women when talking of Islam. If many Swiss Muslims are from Bosnia why didn't the Swiss poster show a European woman in a floral headscarf with no veil?

*sigh*

In summary, Muslim women with their faces covered represent a minority of the Islamic population, and even fewer of them where those black abayas we in the West are so fond of.


Man this is getting long and I still have a few more points to make! I think I will stop it here and continue in my next blog post.

Attention people in Dubai

... you should read my blog more often.

I warned you that there was a huge property bubble.
I warned you that rents and property prices would crash.
and I warned you that the debt load of the emirate was shocking


Granted, I wasn't expecting Dubai to default/restructure/delay payment so early, and on so much debt. It's been rippling through the financial markets all over the world. You can't just announce to people that you would like to hold off on payments on your $60 billion of loans and not create a big fuss.

Most people are of the opinion that oil-rich neighbour Abu Dhabi will eventually bail them out. Possibly, if the debt problem causes the entire UAE to suffer then they will have to step in, but not without Dubai paying a price. It already looks like Abu Dhabi is stepping up to eclipse Dubai as the finance/tourism hub of the country. Tourism ads for Abu Dhabi are all over the international networks now (like CNNi).

Well I have one more prediction about this mess. Call it a hunch.



The size of the debt has been underestimated.


The $80 billion figure that keeps getting battered around as Dubai's total debt load I believe comes from a Government announcement a number of months ago when people were asking about transparency regarding the total Government liabilities. I'm not sure whether that figure can be believed. Dubai PR machine was busy in the last few months making announcements about how the worst was over and things were picking back up again, so I'm not sure about their track record on announcements. I think the total debt load is bigger than $80 billion, not grossly bigger, maybe another $20 billion, but in the months to come we will probably hear about some more debt and the total debt load will be revalued.

Let's see how I do on this one.

Qatar and Education

This week Qatar is hosting the World Innovation Summit for Education conference. I wish I could have gone but I'm recuperating and it is held on working days so even if I was not recovering I'd have to go to work instead.

Despite the fact that I do not work in an educational field, nor do I have any children, I've always had an interest in educational theory and standards. Maybe because I just love learning and in my school days I certainly learned how an aspiring teacher or a decent programme can make all the difference in someone's education. Unfortunately I have also learnt how a bad teacher can turn people off learning and even discourage people from following a field of study that they liked. And thanks to authors like Jonathan Kozol I've also learnt how poorly funded or overcrowded schools can turn promising young students apathetic and bitter, destroying their potential.

Getting back to the conference is a good thing that Qatar is hosting it -- because they need a lot of innovation right now if they are going make significant improvements to their educational system.

I mentioned in a previous blog post about the OECD's PISA test, which tests 15-year-old students all over the world in reading, mathematics, and science. Despite having one of the highest GDP per capita in the world, I think only second to Luxembourg, Qatar's students scored very poorly on the 2006 PISA test:

Reading -- 55th out of 56 countries
Mathematics -- 56th out of 57 countries
Science -- 56th out of 57 countries

(Krygryzstan was last in all categories)

Well there is also another educational test that numerous countries participate in. It is called the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) test, which tests grade 4 and grade 8 students. And in this test Qatar performed poorly as well, countries such as Ghana and Botswana scored higher. In fact in math Qatar was second-last for Grade 4 and last for Grade 8, in science Qatar was second-last at both ages. How can a country with so much wealth not have an educational system better than many impoverished nations?

I spoke to some Qataris about it. First of all, much like when I mentioned the PISA test a while back, they were not surprised by the results at all. They weren't sure whether things have changed since when they were younger (but they are in their mid-20s so if things are different it wasn't changed that long ago) but when they were in school:

-- A large amount of your grade was attendance, so much of it in fact that if you just showed up you could pretty much pass regardless of your test results.
-- Exams were not comprehensive. If you covered a chapter of a math text you're usually given a small quiz on it and that was that, you did not have to study the material again. This would deftly discourage long-term retention of anything.
-- Apparently schools are run almost as profit centres. Schools are given a certain amount of money from the government without the lot of oversight into how it is spent. So a lot of schools cut corners, resulting in low-paid teachers and overcrowded classrooms. [ I'm not so sure about this one, I'm pretty sure the Ministry of Education would do some oversight on spending. Perhaps because rents are so high a lot of money has to go to rent for the school building and housing for teachers, making it more problematic for schools to spend money on other things]
-- a lot of time spent on religious studies which takes away from science, maths etc. I can't blame a sharia society are putting emphasis on religious study and I doubt that is the main reason why the test scores are so poor (one would think it would improve reading scores). I don't think Qatar would be willing to be number one in these tests if it meant getting rid of religious study. Perhaps the Education Ministry would aim for improvements to keep the country's students at least on par with the industrialised world, balancing it with the religious study.
-- not a lot of homework given out. I remember talking to one person who used to teach in Bahrain and they told me that teachers were generally discouraged from giving out homework since a lot of the kids would just get someone else to do it for them at home, or pay someone. Not too hard to imagine since many South Asian labourers make as little as $120 a month, I'm sure they'd gladly do a kid's homework for $10.
-- And of course it might be the usual culprits that are always bantered about in North America when discussing education -- TV/video games and parental involvement in education.

Qatar has made some changes, I know it developed an Academic Bridge programme through Qatar Foundation to give recent graduates extra assistance in getting them prepared for University but that may be too little too late. Changes are definitely needed in the elementary and middle school programmes if Qatar is going to make significant improvements in education.

The results of the 2009 PISA test are due out around March or April next year. I'm hopeful there will be a slight improvement but nothing significant, comprehensive educational reform will take many years. Any changes that were implemented by the Ministry since the 2006 test will take time to show up in the scoring.

Al Ahli Hospital versus Doha Clinic

Okay I'm back from the hospital for the wisdom teeth extraction at Al Ahli Hospital. So far so good, face is not too swollen and the pain has been more like a dull ache that non-prescription painkillers keeps in check, I don't need the heavy-duty painkillers thankfully. The procedure was a little more complicated than a standard wisdom tooth extraction so I needed to be under a general anaesthetic and spent 24 hours in the hospital.

So in the course of one month I have undergone general anaesthesia and a hospital stay in both Doha Clinic and Al Ahli Hospital (AAH). AAH is the newest private hospital in Doha, spacious with wonderful-looking facilities, and most companies purchasing private medical plans for their employees want AAH on the list. Doha Clinic is older, not as spacious, and tends to be more crowded. But are looks everything? Here's my comparison:

Approval for the procedure: Tie. both places sent the request for the procedure to the insurance company and as soon as approval was given my procedure was scheduled within a week.

Initial blood work and admissions procedures: Doha Clinic. I just had to go to the laboratory for the blood tests and there was no waiting or delays processing paperwork. AAH was busier and it took around a half an hour before I could get my blood taken, and I also had to separately go to an admissions office to sort out the room booking, which I did not have the do at Doha Clinic. Good thing AAH had sent a nurse along with me otherwise I probably would have had to ask someone where to go. I know, I know, a half-hour wait for blood work is not exactly an ordeal, but it was still quicker and easier at Doha Clinic so it wins.

Preapproval consultation: Tie. this is a bit trickier because there are two consultations involved, with the surgeon and with the anaesthesiologist. The consultation with the surgeon was definitely longer and more detailed at AAH, but the consultation with the anaesthesiologist was better at Doha Clinic. At AAH the anaesthesiologist consultation was a couple of minutes in my hospital room before the procedure, at Doha Clinic the consultation took place days before at the anaesthesiologist's office and we had a good 15-minute discussion. I will say that much of the information asked by the anaesthesiologist at Doha Clinic was instead done by a nurse at AAH but I feel more at ease talking to the specialist directly. Also, no one at AAH mentioned fasting before the procedure. I fasted anyway because I knew from my operation at Doha Clinic that you should fast before going under a general anaesthetic. It was not until I got to AAH for the procedure that I was asked when I last ate, not sure what would have happened if I'd had breakfast just before going to the hospital?

Hospital room: AAH (by a hair). I was in a private room at both hospitals and the facilities were pretty much the same: rooms were around the same size, extra chairs and couches for guests, a small refrigerator, closet/wardrobe to keep stuff in, TV, etc. So it is down to the small stuff, AAH wins out because: the room is newer, AAH provides a room safe for your valuables, hospital gown was softer, and the small refrigerator is stocked with water and juice for your guests.

Nursing staff: Tie, both excellent. Professional, friendly, and never any problems or delays when I called for them.

Cleanliness: Tie. at both places staff came by to clean the rooms and the garbage frequently

Operation: I was unconscious so what can I say? AAH was more serious about patient identity, every step of the way from admissions, the nursing staff, to just outside the operations room, I was always asked to confirm: my name, what procedure I was here for, and then I would be shown the signed consultation form which detailed the procedure and risks and asked to confirm that was my signature. Looks like AAH was really worried about doing the wrong procedure on a patient. Was it overkill? Can't say. Guess one cannot be too careful with these things.

Food: unfair to make a comparison. I was at AAH for wisdom teeth extraction so my meals were limited to liquids and ice cream while at Doha Clinic I could avail myself of their full menu. Doha Clinic provided me 4 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack) and the food was pretty good, for example one meal was roast chicken on biriani rice, green salad, soup, cooked vegetables, another salad similar to a Greek salad, and dessert. Sometimes I couldn't even finish the meal there was so much food. AAH did ask me if I was having guests pop by and when so that if I wanted they could prepare meals for them (!!), something Doha Clinic didn't ask me about.

Postoperation consultations: unfair to make a comparison. on the face of it AAH was better as the dental surgeon came by when he said he would, checked the wounds, provided an update as to what he thought and asked if I had any questions, at Doha Clinic sometimes the surgeon came by as scheduled, sometimes not. BUT at AAH I was dealing with a dental surgeon while at Doha Clinic I was dealing with a general surgeon who was on call for emergency surgeries. I do not think it's fair to criticise a surgeon who does emergency surgeries for not stopping by my room at a pre-arranged time - he may have had to save a life instead. And given the number of car accidents in Doha I'm willing to bet there are a lot of emergencies to deal with.

Both places also had a Guest Relations person come by to see if everything was okay and if I had any questions or concerns to either let them know or call the nurses.

So there you have it, both places were pretty good. Some people in Doha may be drawn to AAH instead of Doha Clinic because the clinic side of DC is crowded (the hospital part isn't though) and the building is not as new or fancy as AAH, but it certainly did an adequate job and had standards comparable to AAH. I was treated well at both places.

Where are all the Qataris?

Something I have found unusual about Qataris is that the society tends to keep to itself and its own activities. the Government spends a lot of money to bring activities to the country but for the most part the local citizens do not attend them. The tennis tournaments, the Tribeca film festival, speedboat races, heck I'm not sure if any of the Qataris I know have been to the Museum of Islamic Art yet! The Qatar Natural History Group meetings tend not to have any locals in attendance either.

That's not to say Qataris avoid all events, a prominent football (soccer) match will have the locals out in droves and festivities such as National Day has thousands of Qataris on the Corniche celebrating. They just tend to skip events that a lot of Westerners find interesting. It just makes me wonder why the Government places an emphasis on bringing events here that citizens are ambivalent about (not that I'm complaining mind you, it is great that I can go see all of these things.) I was even talking to a Qatari colleague who is going on a trip to a major European city and he plans to do some shopping but not go to any of the museums or other highlights. To each their own I suppose. My friend Abdulla had no problem with wandering around Japan experiencing all of its unusual things but told me the travel will likely end once he gets married because most Qatari women do not like to travel. Maybe Qataris as a society are just not as adventurous as other cultures and prefer to stay at home? I'll have to ask about that.

Anyway, for the benefit of any newcomers reading the blog, where can you usually find a lot of Qataris?

Malls
Coffee Shops
Restaurants and cafes of five-star hotels
Souq Waqif
Beaches where jet skiing is popular
Parks (they love going to the parks with their children)
The sand dunes near the Inland Sea
Local football matches; and
Mosques (naturally)

I'm sure there are other places but until such time as my Arabic improves enough to read the local Arabic newspapers I will not know what the local citizenry are up to

Tribeca -- the final day

Last film:

A Serious Man -- the Coen Brothers

Attendance: 100%

The latest film by the Coen Brothers is about a Jewish professor in the late 1960s to whom a sequence of bad events happens to. Like all of the Coens' films the strength is in the off-beat characters and dialogue. It was entertaining, funny and also unconventional, something I like in movies. The rabbis the main character talks to were a riot.

Rating -- 5. My favourite film that I saw in the festival so why not give it top marks.



So that's it for the film festival. I suppose my biggest disappointment was that there were not a lot of locals attending the festival. The Qatari Government and other foundations spend a lot of money to bring events such as this and the tennis to Doha but few citizens bother to go. Shame. Maybe in time more locals will appreciate these great events.

Tribeca -- day two

Okay, I saw two films:


Buried Secrets -- Raja Amari

Attendance: maybe 30%! Apparently the note board said the film was sold out! Wish I knew what was going on here.

This is a Tunisian film, in Arabic and French with English subtitles. Apparently its original title is not "Buried Secrets" but it is called that for the English version because the translation of its title is the same as an already existing English-language film. A lady and her two daughters (one in her late 20s, the other maybe 15) live in the servants quarters in a basement of an abandoned mansion in the countryside. Problems occur when the owners of the mansion return and the ladies keep their existence a secret because they figure they will be thrown out. To complicate things the youngest daughter isn't quite all-there mentally and having grown up in a traditional family is fascinated by their modern clothes and ways. She starts sneaking through the house and messing with the owner's girlfriend's stuff, watching them when they are in bed etc.

From there it descends into a dark tale. Things get more twisted as the film goes on. It definitely didn't turn out the way I expected.

There was also a brief nude scene, which was nice to see as it showed that Qatar was not censoring any of the films at the festival. Had the film been shown in the cinema in Qatar normally that scene would have been cut. The film was rated "PG-18" though, perhaps to warn locals. I think some Muslim ladies did leave part way through the film. In North America the nudity probably would have earned the film PG-13, I'm not sure it would have been a big enough deal to even get "R". Some European television shows more.

The Director turned up to answer questions but we weren't told this until the credits had finished, by which point almost everyone had left. It was only because I had been chatting with a friend about the film that I was even around. So the Director had a Q&A with maybe a dozen people, I kind of felt bad for her. I hope she didn't know how low the turnout was for the screening.

Rating: 3.5 (though that didn't exist on the rating card so I rounded up to a 4). I was entertained, the film got unexpectedly dark and weird, sort of like how Fargo started out as a conventional crime movie but sure didn't end up that way. There were some pretty big plot holes though, which detracted from it being a great film. I won't go into the details, if dark movies are your thing then this movie is probably worth a look.


Harry Brown -- Daniel Barber

Attendance: around 90%. That's better!

Michael Caine plays Harry Brown, a pensioner living in some decrepit Council Housing project in London. The local gang of drug-dealing teenagers terrorises the place. One day they go too far and Harry takes matters into his own hands. Essentially it's a vigilante action-movie. Nuff said.

Caine does a good job and the movie should be decent box-office as it delivers what one would expect from a vigilante movie. A couple of scenes in the movie were a bit over the top and unrealistic, which was unfortunate. One example, Harry wants a gun so he shows up at the doorway of a guy who illegally sells guns. The guy has no idea who Harry is but has no problem letting an old, well-dressed man who knocks on the door into his building, past his huge marijuana grow-op, and into a room where people are injecting heroin and doing lines of cocaine, in order to pull out a bag of guns to see what Harry would like to buy. I immediately thought, "For a local drug-heavy he seems to be a complete idiot." The film just seemed to need to establish that this man was B-A-D, it's not enough that he sells guns, he also needs to be into every kind of drug (oh yeah, and also point out that he likes to have sex with drugged-up underage girls too). This guy's badness was pretty much all laid out in two minutes of filmtime, to a complete stranger. Uh-huh. Whatever. Happens all the time I'm sure.

Rating: 3.5 (again rounded up to 4) but now that I think about it I wish I had given it a 3 instead. Both it and Buried Secrets have some plot holes or moments of unbelievability but Buried Secrets was more unconventional so I think I'd place it slightly ahead of Harry Brown. I like movies that try to be different. People who like vigilante movies will not be disappointed with Harry Brown though.


One more movie to go, showing tonight.